


Let Me Find You Again

by BleedingInk



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Bars and Pubs, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Love at First Sight, One Night Stands, Swearing, past meg/lucifer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 06:18:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15857946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingInk/pseuds/BleedingInk
Summary: When Meg hides from her ex in a bar's bathroom, she's not expecting to be rescued by a stranger with bright blue eyes. She's also not expecting him to be everything she didn't know she was looking for.





	Let Me Find You Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mouse9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mouse9/gifts).



> Written for my friend Heather's birthday. Hope you enjoy it!

Three beers in and Meg was feeling good that Friday night. The bar was bustling with people, all dancing and laughing and drinking like it was their last night on earth. The band playing was good enough, but as the alcohol flowed freely, less and less people paid attention to them, instead swaying to their own rhythm or stumbling into the darker corners of the joint. Meg was willing to bet that Lilith and Ruby were among those people, because she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen them. Had it been minutes? Hours? It didn’t matter. She was having too much fun for it to matter.

She approached the counter and had to scream to make herself heard:

“Hey!” She shook her empty beer bottle towards the barman. “Can I have another one of these?”

The barman (an excessively tall guy with long hair and a plaid shirt) nodded and slid another one over. Meg opened it with her own keychain and took a swig.

As much as she was having dancing by herself as if no one was watching, she figured it would be time to go home soon. She had done what she’d come to do, which was to check the bar’s acoustic and the crowd. Her Uncle Alistair, who was also their band’s manager, had got them the gig to play there the following night, but Ruby and Lilith hadn’t been convinced of doing it unless they checked out the place first. The last time Alistair had got them a gig, it had been in a bar on the other side of town where exactly three people present.

This time, however, it seemed like Alistair had hit the jackpot. The bar was popular, the acoustics were great…

Her ex-boyfriend was there.

Meg felt how all the joy and cheerfulness of the night abandoned her at once. Lucifer (fucking pretentious asshole) had just walked in with a couple of his buddies. He had spiked his hair since the last time Meg saw him and now was casing the joint as if trying to find something.

“Shit,” Meg muttered under her breath as she left the beer to the side and ducked. “Shit, shit, shit…”

Had he seen her? What was he doing there? It couldn’t be that he was looking for her, the girls had told no one they were coming there that night, not even Alistair.

She elbowed her way through the people, suddenly lamenting the fact that there were so many of them. Her purse’s strip got caught on a nail sticking out on the wall and it snapped when Meg pulled without realizing. Her possessions spread on the floor, causing a small commotion as people moved aside to avoid stepping on them or on her.

Meg cursed once again. Even if he wasn’t there looking for her specifically, he had probably noticed that. She quickly picked up her wallet, keys and cellphone (she had lost her lipstick somewhere in the sea of feet around her, but it didn’t matter) and tossed them inside. She hoped the clacking of her boots wasn’t loud enough to alert anyone she was there, as she lunged towards the first door she saw in front of her.

It turned out it was the wrong door.

The guy in the black leather jacket standing in front of the sink suddenly stopped washing his hands and gaped at her with confusion.

“This… this is the men’s bathroom,” he said. Apparently, he had a knack for pointing out the obvious.

Meg turned around to get out of there, but she spotted Lucifer again. Maybe it was her imagination and just much she wanted him _not_ to see her, but she had the unpleasant sensation that he was heading right there.

“Shit!” she exclaimed again and bolted for one of the stalls.

“Hey!” the guy in the leather jacket said, opening the bathroom stall. “You cannot be here!”

Meg’s panic acted before her mind had a chance to catch up with her. She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in, locking the door behind them.

She had been so busy thinking about ways to escape or hide from Lucifer that she had not, up until that point, stopped to notice that the guy in front of her was extremely handsome. He had dark brown hair and a short stubble that cover his cheeks. His eyebrows were tightly knit together and his chapped lips slightly opened, as if he wasn’t entirely sure about what was going on there.

She was stunned for a moment when his striking blue eyes met hers. But the situation was too urgent to actually focus on the gorgeous stranger.

“I’m sorry,” Meg said, whispering so she could hear the door open if Lucifer was actually heading there. “I’m hiding from my ex.”

“In the men’s bathroom?”

His voice was gravely and deep and sent a shiver down Meg’s spine. In any other occasion, she’d be hitting on him so fast his head would spin, but right now, standing so close to him in such a tight space, all she could feel was the awkwardness of the situation.

“I didn’t know it was the men’s bathroom!” she argued with irritation. “I just needed to get the hell away from him!”

His expression softened a little bit.

“What did he do?”

“Do you have all night?” Meg asked, rolling her eyes.

“For you? Maybe I do.”

Meg stared at him dumbfounded. Was he really trying to pick her up while they were trapped together in a bathroom stall?

Well, they were trapped together because she needed a place to hide.

And also… Meg had to admire the smoothness of his comment. Despite how she had decided this wasn’t the time to be hitting on him, she couldn’t help the smirk that appeared in her lips.

The guy didn’t try to come closer, though.

“Do you need a getaway driver?” he offered. “I’m friends with Sam, the barman. He might let us slip through the back door and I have a car.”

“Is that so?” Meg asked. “And where would you be taking me, exactly?”

“Anywhere you want, of course.”

She didn’t miss the invitation implicit in his tone and the way his eyes moved up and down her body. This guy probably had a few beers in him (and she did too) and again, if it had been any other moment, she would already be climbing him like a tree. But the timing was just terrible.

“Thanks. My friends are probably looking for me,” she said. She searched inside her ruined purse and took out her cellphone.

Her heart sank. She had an unread message from Ruby from an hour ago telling her that she and Lilith were going home. She was going to kill those bitches the next time she saw them, she didn’t care if they were two thirds of her band.

She looked up at the guy in the leather jacket.

“What’s your name?”

“Castiel.”

“No, really.”

The guy tilted his head, as if he didn’t understand what she was saying or if he wasn’t aware at all of the fact he had the weirdest name ever.

“Okay.” Meg put her phone away. “Mine’s Meg and I might need to take that ride with you after all.”

His eyes became brighter, but at least he did Meg the favor of not smiling as if he’d just won something. He simply grabbed her hand and guided her out the bathroom and back into the crowded bar.

“Sam!” he called out when they approached the counter. The guy in the plaid leaned over to listen to Castiel give him a quick explanation of what the needed from him.

Meg remained just by his side, trying to shrink away so she wouldn’t be noticed. She wasn’t used to do that. She was more the kind to dance of tabletops or prance around in stage, singing at the top of her lungs. She had put on her red dress with the corset lace up, tall boots and fishnets that night precisely so she would attract some stares. It just went to show how much Lucifer had fucked her up that he made her feel so uncomfortable in her own skin just by being in her near vicinity. Perhaps he wouldn’t realize he was there. The last time he’d seen her, she was still a brunette. She had since bleached her hair blonde and added some red and purple streaks. Perhaps he wouldn’t even…

Guy, one of Lucifer’s buddies, looked right in her direction and Meg knew that he knew she was there.

She gripped tighter unto Castiel’s hand to alert him, but just as she did, Sam quickly unlatched the flip top and lifted it for them to pass.

“Thank you!” Castiel mouthed at him.

He squeezed Meg’s hand and they ran through piles of cardboard boxes and trash bags that’d be taken out after the bar closed. They pushed the backdoor and stumbled into a night that was surprisingly cold compared with the human heat they’d left behind. Meg gasped for air and shiver in the dark, dirty alleyway. Castiel immediately removed his jacket.

“You don’t have to do that,” she protested, but he was already draping it over her shoulders.

In the dim streetlight, Meg noticed that he was wearing just a short-sleeved grey shirt underneath, and that his arms were muscular and tanned. He was standing right in front of her, far too close even though they weren’t currently trapped inside a bathroom stall together.

“But I want to,” he said, with a smile that brought an unexpected sweetness to his face.

He stepped back and Meg realized with unexpected disappointment that he was no longer holding her hand. His jacket was warmth and it smelled like cologne. She followed him as quickly as her high heel boots allowed her to when he started walking down the street.

She almost laughed when she saw his ride. The car wasn’t only ridiculously big and ridiculously old, it was also _golden_.

“Really? You drive that?”

He tilted his head at her again, as if he couldn’t figure out exactly what she meant, just as he had done when she brought attention to his name. She found that she liked that about him. It was as if he simply couldn’t be shamed into being anything other than himself.

“It’s safe and it goes fast enough,” he said, with a shrug. He opened the driver’s door, but stopped before he got inside. “Or perhaps you’d prefer to call a cab to take you home?”

Meg hesitated. She had been so busy thinking about escaping Lucifer that she’d not realized she had been about to get in the car of a complete stranger. Sure, he was kind and good looking, but those weren’t reasons to throw her prudence out of the window like that.

“You know, maybe I will do that.”

“Good. Can I wait with you then?”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Why?”

“You’re a pretty girl. I like looking at you.”

It didn’t feel like he was paying her a compliment. It was more as if he was stating a fact as unchanging and unquestionable as the sun rising every morning. Meg laughed nervously. It was really not a good thing just how much she was into this guy she had met five minutes ago.

“Well…” she started, and then she instantly wished that she had got in the car with Castiel at once.

“Meg!” Lucifer’s voice came booming down across the street.

Meg startled and stumbled backwards until she hit a wall, but this time she found nowhere to run. Lucifer was striding towards them, his face twisted up in a mask of rage.

“What the hell? Were you hiding from me?”

“No,” Meg lied. “Why would I be hiding for you? You and I have nothing to talk about. Go away!”

“Don’t talk to me like that!” Lucifer demanded, stepping closer to her. “Meg, come on! Are you still mad?”

“Am I still mad?” Meg cackled, part out of nervousness, and part amazed at the fact that he was even asking that. “You tried to fuck my band over!”

“I told you, she came at me! She’s a whore!”

“Right, and I’m supposed to believe your dick just casually fell into her cunt?” Meg shouted. She didn’t care who was listening to her anymore, she just needed to shout at Lucifer just how much of an ass he was.

She was so furious, in fact, that she didn’t even realize that Lucifer had come close enough to grab her by the arm. He pulled from her while Meg struggled to get away from his iron grip. His breath smelled like alcohol.

“What are you wearing?” he asked, eyeing Castiel’s leather jacket. “Are you going home with some loser? Are you a whore too now?!”

Meg opened her mouth to tell him it was none of his business who she went home with, not anymore, but she caught something out of the corner of her eye that startled her into silence and scared Lucifer enough to let her go and step back, holding his hands up in the air.

The thing was the barrel of a small, black gun that Castiel was pointing straight at Lucifer’s chest, holding it carefully with both hands. Meg noticed that his index finger was firmly placed over the trigger.

“The lady said she’s not interested in talking to you,” he said. His gravelly voice sounded even deeper, threatening. He took a step forwards and got in between her and Lucifer. “Get in the car, Meg.”

Meg would’ve liked to obey him, but she was paralyzed. And a part of her, a little perverse part of her, didn’t want to miss out on the chance of seeing Lucifer get shot in his ugly face.

Lucifer seemed to be debating between continue with his bravado and running away like a little bitch. He chose bravado, apparently thinking he could somehow intimidate the guy holding a gun pointed at him.

“This doesn’t concern you…”

“This is a registered gun,” Castiel explained to him, calmly. “You’re threatening my date. I don’t see this ending well for you.”

Finally Lucifer seemed to come to the realization that Castiel was right. He growled and stumped his feet, but he finally turned away and left as he shot another: “Bitch!” at Meg.

Castiel slowly lowered the gun.

“Well, you sure you want to wait for that cab?”

He made a good argument.

The last Meg saw of Lucifer that night (and hopefully forever) was the back of his head as he walked back inside the club, presumably to find the rest of his buddies.

Meg breathed out a sigh of relief that was quickly frozen by the fact that Castiel had left the gun on the side of his seat while he drove.

“Can you put that thing away?”

“What? This?” he asked as he picked up the gun. He pointed it at the car’s roof and pulled the trigger. Meg instinctively jumped back, but the sound of the shot never came. Instead, a small, golden flame appeared in the tip of the barrel.

“Oh, fuck you!” she exclaimed, hitting his bicep with her purse. “You fucking…!”

Castiel laughed as she tried to come up with an insult devastating enough. She was failing, hard, because not only was she glad he was able to scare Lucifer away, she was also discovering she really, really liked Castiel and all of his quirks.

She was so fucked.

After a few seconds, she started laughing along with him, and they didn’t stop until they found a red light blocking their way.

“There are cigarettes in the glove compartment,” Castiel told her.

Meg found the box easily and pulled two, one for her and one for him that she herself put in his lips before he used his fake gun to light both of them. She usually smoked menthols, but she didn’t mind the stronger flavor of these ones. The smell would cling to her clothes and her hair for hours and she’d be reminded of Castiel long after he’d dropped her home.

If he dropped her home. Because she realized they had been driving for several minutes and she still hadn’t told him where she lived.

“So where are we going, exactly?” she asked him, crooking an eyebrow.

“I assumed you’d tell me where to turn,” he said with a shrug.

Meg could do that, certainly. Bull of the sudden, she didn’t feel like it.

“Why don’t you make the choice, Cas? Take me somewhere pretty.”

She accentuated the invitation by putting her hand on his knee and squeezing softly. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed nervously, but other than that, he barely reacted.

“Very well,” he said. He took a turn down a street Meg had never visited before.

It was a bit of a long drive, he told her, so if she didn’t mind telling him, he’d like to hear exactly what had Lucifer done.

“I got the impression he wasn’t the smartest person.”

“He’s a fucking idiot, it’s what he is,” Meg said. She took a long drag out of her cigarette and rolled down the window. The smoke escaped in pretty spiral that vanished in the starless night. She decided she had no reason to keep what had happened from Castiel. “I sing in a band, with my friends. We’re called The Demonesses.”

“That would be the friends that stranded you tonight?”

“Lilith and Ruby are too into one another to notice people exist outside of their relationship,” Meg explained. She honestly wasn’t angry with them. They had done it enough times that she’d come to expect and besides, if they hadn’t left, he wouldn’t be riding this car with Castiel right now, to a destination unknown. “Anyway, yes, them, but there was another girl. Josie. Stage name, Abaddon. She seemed like a good fit for us. She had the attitude and she could play some good riffs. Until I walked in on her fucking Lucifer in the couch o the recording studio.”

It followed a stunned silence from Castiel, as if that hadn’t been the turned he was expecting from that story.

“Wow,” he said in the end.

“Yeah.” Meg threw out the butt of her cigarette. “He did it on purpose. I know it. Even if he doesn’t realize it, he was trying to sabotage my band. The recording studio… well, it was more of a glorified basement, to be completely honest with you. But he knew either me or one of the girls would walk in at any moment. We were trying to finish recording our first actual album. With us having to kick Abaddon off the band for being a bitch, the whole thing’s been delayed and we’re a guitarist short for the upcoming shows.”

“Why was he trying to sabotage you?”

“He didn’t like me being in the band,” Meg explained. “He didn’t like, and I quote, everybody in the crowd staring at me like they wanted to fuck me. He tried to convince me to leave it many times and he was always talking about it as if it was my hobby more than what I actually want to do with my life. He was terrified when we started recording some LP’s and I think he was trying to break us up. He threw a wrench in our plans, but he didn’t stop us. If he wanted The Demonesses to be no more, he would have had more luck fucking Ruby or Lilith but they love me too much and they’re too lesbian to ever do that.”

That got Castiel laughing again. He was a good listener, definitely, and it felt great talking to him. Lilith and Ruby were her best friends in the world, but Meg sometimes couldn’t help but to feel like a third-wheel around them. She liked to have someone’s undivided attention. Was she selfish for feeling that way?

“Well, he is a major idiot, then,” Castiel said. “Yes, maybe everybody in the crowd wants you when you’re performing. But he had the good luck of being the guy you went home with every night.”

Meg watched him smoke in silence. She had no idea why her heart was suddenly fluttering that way, but she wasn’t sure she disliked it.

He took her through a dirt road in a woody area right outside of town and just when Meg was going to ask if he was looking for a good spot to dump her body, the trees parted and they found themselves atop of a hill overlooking the city underneath them. He stopped the car and in the blink of an eye, he was opening the passenger’s door for her and helping her step out of the car.

“This is the prettiest place I could think of.”

There was a rail to prevent people from rolling down, but other than that, the place seemed untouched by human hands. The city was far away, a spectacle of small golden and orange lights among an ocean of darkness Meg stared at it, incredulous. She had lived her entire life in that city, how come she never knew about that place?

“It’s gorgeous!”

“It is.” Castiel leaned against the rail, the cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. “I always like to come here. Down there, people are always running, always searching for something, like aimless ants. I’m not even sure they know what. Up here it’s quiet. It reminds you that all those little things aren’t really important.”

It was the most clichéd thing Meg had ever heard, and yet she was strangely charmed by it. Despite the slight chill of early autumn, Meg felt warm inside of Castiel’s jacket, standing so close to him that their arms grazed against each other.

“I think that’s why I like you,” he said, turning to look at her. “You know what your passion is and you pursue it. That’s admirable.”

“You’ve only just met me,” Meg pointed out. “I could have been lying about everything I’ve told you. Lucifer could be right, and I could just be a crazy whore.”

He laughed and shook his head.

“I don’t think you are,” he said. He was standing in front of her now, his gaze inescapable. Meg felt her knees weakening slightly. “But… do you believe it’s possible to just look at someone and… know?”

“Know what?”

“Know that they’re going to be important to you.”

He was so close that Meg could smell him. It was a scent of the same cologne in the jacket she was wearing, shaving cream and smoke. It was intoxicating.

“No,” she said, putting a hand on the back of his head. “But I believe in giving people the chance to take a closer look.”

His stubble felt rough against her skin and his hands were firm on her waist. Meg knew, even before their lips found each other that she wasn’t going home that night after all.

 

* * *

 

She woke up in a mess of sheets and discarded clothes. Castiel, who had been sleeping snuggled next to her until a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen in the room. She sat up, wrapping herself in the sheet and rubbed her eyes, blinking in the soft light seeping in through the window pane.

It had been intense. For someone who waxed poetically while overlooking the city and who had been so adamant that she didn’t have to go up to his apartment if she really didn’t want to (Meg had really, _really_ wanted to), he had been surprisingly rough, stripping her of her clothes and making love to her in a rushed, desperate manner, as if he thought she was going to vanish from his arms at any moment. Once that first round was over, he took his time with her, lavishing her with attention and delicate touches until Meg reached heights of pleasure she hadn’t imagined. She had never realized how selfish some of the guys she’d been with were until then.

Castiel opened the door. He was wearing nothing but a pair of ripped jeans, giving Meg an eyeful of the glorious muscles of his chest and the tattoo on the side of his abdomen. Meg had licked it, but she didn’t asked what the letters meant. She didn’t want to burn through every topic of conversation in one night if she was going to see him again.

Was she? Did she want to?

She had been so lost in thought she didn’t realize Castiel had just asked her something.

“Sorry, what?”

“How do you like your coffee? With cream, sugar?”

“Oh. Black is fine.” She pinned the sheets to her body with her hand and smiled at him while she stood up. “I need to use your bathroom.”

“Of course. It’s the next door over. Join me in the kitchen when you’re ready.”

Meg quickly picked up her clothes from the floor and spent several minutes looking at herself in the mirror. The dress had been fun and sexy to wear the night before, but now she was thinking she was going to do the walk of shame in it. Castiel had left a hickie on the left side of her neck that she was going to need tons of make up to cover and her hair looked like something had nested on it. She went through his cabinet looking for a comb, but all she found was a small bottle of cologne.

She uncapped it and sniffed it. It was definitely the scent that had befuddled her the night before. The bottle said it was sandalwood and jasmine. It was a dumb thing, what she did next, but she couldn’t help herself. She let some drops fall on her wrists and the rubbed it behind her ears.

She just wanted to spend the rest of the day smelling like him. If she didn’t, maybe she too would end up believing he was a fantasy her mind had conjured up. She needed some sort of tangible proof that the night before had actually happened.

Castiel was in the kitchen and smiled at her as he handed her mug to her. If he caught on to the fact that Meg was wearing his perfume, he said nothing about it. Meg sipped her coffee pensively, looking around. She hadn’t had time to take a good look at the apartment the night before, as they were too eager to reach the bedroom. But now she had the chance, she took her time. She had spoken so much the night before…

“You’re an artist,” she said, pointing at the sketches hung all around his walls.

“I try to be,” he said modestly.

Meg wandered into the living room, separated from the kitchen by a small island, admiring Castiel’s drawings. Many of them depicted life in the city: a couple sitting down in a café, drinking something together, a child playing ball in a vacant lot invaded by weeds, people coming and going in a busy street…

“I thought you said city people were like ants,” she pointed out.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t find them fascinating.”

Castiel stalked towards her and watched her closely. He seemed very interested in what she thought about his art.

And the truth as that Meg had never seen anything so touching in her life. It was as if Castiel had caught glimpses of life, fleeting moments that would have disappeared forever had he not immortalized them in charcoal. There was something genuine about them, something chaotic. They didn’t seem to follow any order or theme, they were just things Castiel had seen that he had found beautiful enough to try and reproduce.

Meg’s breathing got caught in her throat and she had to take a sip of coffee to calm down.

“They’re very beautiful,” she offered, though she felt like the word didn’t even begin to cover it. “Really, Cas.”

Castiel smiled at gently took her empty mug from her hands to place it on a coffee table that was overflowing with papers and books. He grabbed her hands and gently pressed his forehead against hers.

“I had a great time last night.”

“Yeah, well, you would have,” she replied, with a cocky smirk. “You were the lucky guy who got to take me home.”

He chuckled softly.

“Did you?” he asked her.

“Did I what?”

“Did you have a good time?”

Meg stepped back.

“Are you asking me for a performance review?”

“No.” He didn’t laugh at her joke this time, as if the actual reason he was asking was too important for that. “I just want to know if there’s a possibility that we could see each other again.”

Meg was wondering the same thing. She licked her lips, trying to think of an answer…

Her cellphone rang loudly, interrupting the calm morning they were having. She didn’t remember plugging it in to charge, but she figured Castiel must have done it for her at some point during the night. What a gentleman.

And that was exactly what it was, Meg realized while he walked away back to the kitchen to give her some privacy. She could call him a gentleman without a single hint of irony and it was… surprising. Maybe being with Lucifer for so long had warped her sense of how men really were.

Or maybe he was just really different from everybody else.

“Where are you?” Ruby’s voice boomed in her ear, taking her out of her thoughts.

“I’m… doesn’t matter. What do you need?”

“What do I need? Meg, do you know what time it is?”

Meg moved her cellphone away to find the answer to Ruby’s question. It was a little past twelve. She had slept all morning. It took her a second to realize she had promised her friends she’d meet them at eleven to rehearse for that night’s show.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry. I just… I’m on my way.”

“Do you have to go?” Castiel asked her while Meg hastily put her boots back on. “Do you want me to drive you?”

Meg hesitated. On one hand, she wanted to spend more time with him. On the other, she was sure that if he drove her home, she might ask him to jump in the shower with her and she’d showed up even later to rehearsal.

“I think I’ll call that cab now,” she said, with an apologetic shrug.

Castiel looked disappointed, but he didn’t try to insist. He walked with her and opened the door for her.

“Well… goodbye,” he muttered.

She didn’t move, pulling from the helm of her dress nervously.

“I, uh… we have a show tonight. At The Bunker. You know, your friend Sam’s bar.”

“Yes, I know.” He tilted his head again and Meg realized she was going to have to spell it out for him.

“Would you like to come to watch us? Maybe we can have a drink and hang out afterwards.”

She was not in love with this guy, she told herself. Not after only one night, she couldn’t possibly be.

But damn if the way his face lit up with a smile didn’t give her a fuzzy feeling in her stomach.

“Ah,” he said, putting his hands on her cheeks. “So you did have fun last night.”

“How do you figure?” Meg huffed at her arrogance.

Castiel left a soft kiss over on the edge of her lips.

“Because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have told me where to find you again.”


End file.
